Imagine any fantasy book setting, whether in the real world or in some made-up land the author creativity crafted. The final battle has just finished with the heroes again being triumphant. The villain has just been defeated for good, never to return. However the battle seemingly had a huge cost. Dependent on the circumstances, either the protagonist or another important character to the plot paid the ultimate price for the defeat; death. The cast is overwhelmed with grief at their sacrifice, crying and clutching onto the now deceased character's body. Then suddenly the supposedly dead character shifts a little, opening their vibrant colored eyes to the now shocked and happily crying cast. They have somehow survived for another day, wrapping the story up with a last little sweet twist for the reader. Only what had just occurred was one of the worst clichés any author can create; faking-out a character's death.
The reason fake-out deaths are such a bad cliché is due to the over usage of them. In the past, they worked because the tread was new and almost never used. Elena's fake-out permanent death in The Vampire Diaries book series worked due to this with the addition of the character staying dead for one whole book. That was at the end of the nineties. In Attack on Titan Volume 1, main character Eren is given a fake-out death by Titan that to me and many others was unnecessary. That was about ten years later, when the tread grew too big in popularity. Audiences like to be surprised. Unless you want your audience to get bored or worse give a bad review to your book, it might be time to mix things up a bit.
The best way in my opinion to avoid this cliché is simple; do not use it. That way you avoid the problems faced with its over-saturation. Other ways to dodge this bullet that may have mixed results include killing off the character for good or having the character get badly injured with it being left as a cliff hanger as to whether or not they make it. Really, the choice is up to you.
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One Hundred Fantasy Clichés That Really Need To Rest In Peace
RandomFrom the same writer that pointed out some of the worst tropes in popular culture in A Hundred Clichés That Need To Die comes the much awaited sequel with a twist. See why the fantasy genre in fiction is extremely flawed and has numerous clichés th...
